For one thing, there was a creepy-looking man milling about in the lobby of downtown Phoenix’s FilmBar wearing what was obviously a long, lanky black wig and dark sunglasses indoors at 10 p.m. On any other night, at any other movie, he would be a cause for concern, might even prompt a call to the cops.

But that night, he fit right in. Welcome Tommy Wiseau impersonator.

The man seated behind racks of autobiographical comic books and a stack of newly purchased footballs, ready to be autographed and sold for $20 a pop, also fit in just fine.

Oh hi, Denny!

Phoenix actor Phlip Haldiman talks to a crowd at Film Bar before a screening of cult film The Room in which he played Denny. (Photo: Melissa Farley/The Republic)

Inside the sold-out auditorium, plastic spoons had been distributed to an eager crowd. They clutched their cutlery at the ready, prepared to hurl them at the screen. Theater management was not mad about the imminent spoon throwing, but encouraged it. When the football seller finally entered the room, the crowd erupted in a cheerful chorus: “Oh hi, Denny!”

Philip Haldiman has been doing this for nearly a decade, introducing his biggest movie to tipsy audiences at late-night screenings. Haldiman, 40, reminisces over the first screenings with a lingering sense of wonder. “It was insane, people were screaming. It was like my Beatles moment.”

All that adulation was for his work in “The Room,” quite possibly the worst movie ever made. That sounds like a cavalier assertion, but science will one day find a way to quantifiably prove this. Director, writer, producer and madman Tommy Wiseau self-financed the exercise in cinematic insanity, which premiered to an aghast audience in 2003 and promptly disappeared.

Yes, it really is that bad

The acting is atrocious. It features some of the most inept green-screen work ever committed to film. Entire plot threads disappear. Poorly staged sex scenes linger long enough to seem like a dare for the audience to give up and leave.

Forever promoting the worst art he ever made is not the professional life Haldiman imagined for himself when he and his theater degree set out for Hollywood in his early ’20s. It wasn’t even one he could have guessed at when he gave up on Hollywood and moved back home to Phoenix to pursue a career in journalism. (He worked for a time as a reporter with The Arizona Republic.)

For one thing, he never thought “The Room” would see the light of day. “Once I saw the premiere, definitely not,” he said.

He was moving back to Phoenix when he got a call from one of his co-stars that signaled a change was coming. He was just at Palm Springs, in a car packed with his worldly possessions, when he answered the phone. “Phil, they’re cheering when you come on screen.”

Juliette Danielle, left, Philip Haldiman, center, and Tommy Wiseau are shown in a scene from "The Room."

Cult-classic success story

That “The Room” found success as a midnight cult classic, a sort of Millennial “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” is thanks in large part to savvy film freaks like Andrea Canales. The FilmBar programmer first screened “The Room” in 35mm at the now-defunct Chandler Cinemas in 2009, and she hasn’t stopped screening it since.

“I think I was just flabbergasted that something like this had been made, and for the amount of money that went into it,” Canales said. The film is purported to have had a budget of $6 million; none of that money is visible onscreen. “The story behind 'The Room' is almost as big as the film itself.”

Haldiman’s experience is getting an additional layer of surrealism with the release of “The Disaster Artist.” Directed by and starring James Franco, the critically acclaimed film dramatizes the making of “The Room,” capturing the mad, accidental genius that made The Worst Movie Ever Made possible. It’s the proper Hollywood treatment: Haldiman is played by “The Hunger Games” heartthrob Josh Hutcherson.

Saved by James Franco

CLOSE

James Franco directs and stars with his brother Dave in the comedy/drama 'The Disaster Artist,' which chronicles the making of the "bad movie" classic 'The Room.'

Haldiman said he experienced a wave of emotion when he first saw “The Disaster Artist” at a preview screening. “It definitely captured the experience of trying to make it,” he said, “of wanting something so badly, getting rejected along the way and eventually getting success.”

Long before “The Disaster Artist,” he set about documenting his experience making the room in a comic-book series called “My Big Break.” He’s up to Issue 5 in a planned 10-issue story arc. It took some time for the trained thespian to work up to that kind of acceptance.

“I definitely had to go on a journey,” he said. “When I found out that I was in the worst movie ever made with the worst acting, I needed to burrow myself in the ground for a little bit and just kind of wait it out and see what happened.”

The fact that Haldiman has embraced the madness makes late-night screenings of "The Room" all the more fun for Canales’ patrons. A movie this bad is meant for the big screen.

“The best way to see it is in a theater,” Canales said, “with a bunch of other people throwing spoons.”

Phoenix actor Phlip Haldiman talks to a crowd at Film Bar before a screening of cult film The Room in which he played Denny. (Photo: Melissa Farley/The Republic)

See ‘The Room’ with a crowd

More on Philip Haldiman

Issues of his "My Big Break" comic-book series can be purchased at philiphaldiman.com. Haldiman also hosts "On the Grid," a podcast about the makers and entrepreneurs transforming Phoenix. Download episodes at onthegrid.fireside.fm.